Reel type apparatus for the liquid treatment of yarn



G. SEVERINI Jan. 6, 1959' REEL TYPE APPARATUS FOR THE LIQUID TREATMENT OF YARN 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 17. 1952 INVENTOR ,9 7' TVQS Gifi'euer Jan. 6, 1959 G. SEVERINI 2,867,108

REEL TYPE APPARATUS FOR THE LIQUID TREATMENT OF YARN Filed Oct. 17, 1952 r s Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR'J, E G Ge :1 er mp Jan. 6, 1959 G. SEVERINI 2,867,108

REEL TYPE APPARATUS FOR THE LIQUID TREATMENT OF YARN Filed 001;. 17, 1952 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR. I G 56 v (91 m2;

focus the nature and the essence of this invention.

. tats Unite REEL TYPE APPARATUS F OR THE LIQUID TREATMENT OF YARN Gofiredo Severini, Milan, Italy, assignor to Studi E. Brevetti Applicazioni'Tessili S. r. 1., Milan, Italy This invention relates to an apparatus for the continuous spinning of textile fibres that require wet processing, chemical or heat treatments, particularly viscose rayon.

The problem of the continuous spinning of viscose rayon has attracted for many years the technicians attention and a good many proposals of equipment for such continuous spinning have been made and have given rise to numerous patents. However, only a few types of continuous spinning machines among those hitherto known can be carried into industrial practice as the extremely severe technical and economical requirements of the industry rule out many solutions that might appear satisfactory from a theoretical viewpoint.

Actually, the continuous spinning of viscose rayon could be theoretically effected by means of any device that would cause the filaments formed in the coagulation bath to advance while they are successively subjected to the necessary processing and would finally wind the same up in convenient package form. The industrial practice however introduces certain requirements which extremely complicate this theoretically rather simple problem and which Will have to be shortly discussed to bring into The treatments which .the viscose filaments normally undergo after their formation (treatments some of which, as will be seen later, may, under certain conditions, be omitted) are at least the following: setting, desulphurizing, bleaching and finishing. Between these several treatments the filaments are washed: 1 shall call Wet processing treatments all the above mentioned processing steps including the washings. After the wet processing treatments the yarn is dried and, if required, conditioned.

It is obvious that each treatment, if it is to have the desired elficiency, must last a certain time which is in relation to the structure of the filaments, the composition of the processing liquors or baths and the result that it is wished to obtain. Therefore, the length or yarn that is undergoing processing at any one time or, as-I shall sometimes say, the stored, or collected, yarn cannot be less than a minimum which increases with the speed with which the yarn travels and with the duration of the treatments. On the other hand, it is practically necessary that the continuous spinning machine should not have an excessive size, and this has led to the adoption of a helical thread path. All the continuous spinning machines in practice make use of such a path. In order to move the thread so that it will describe a helix, two types of devices have been resorted to in practice, which we shall generally call tread-storing thread-advancing devices; or, more briefly, storing and advancing devices. The first type comprises two rollers askew to one another, the yarn being wound about both rollers. The second type consists of compound unitary reels comprising various moving parts adapted in their cooperation to cause the thread to progress as desired in a substantially helical path. The words helical and helix, of course,

are not used in a strict geometrical sense but simply atent F Z,8fi?,l08 Fatented Jan. 6,

refer to any continuous curve of a generally helical character, as will be clear from thesdescription and as is commonly understood in this art.

Another fundamental necessity of the continuous spinning is the separation of the processing liquors that must not contaminate each other either while they contact the thread or at any other time, so that they may be recovered, which is essential to the economy of the process. In the only type of continuous spinning machine that has received wide industrial application, the separation of the liquors is obtained by leading the thread successively over a certain number of storing and advancing devices on each of which a single processing step is performed. In this case it is necessary to use compact devices, that is, devices consisting each of a compound unitary reel, which is another reason why the spinning machine is structurally complex, costly to install and not easy to operate.

A considerable length of thread, practically of the order of 600 meters, must be stored'in such machines, and the total duration of the treatment is of several minutes, for instance seven or eight. For these reasons, since each thread must pass successively over as many separate reels as there are treatment steps and in order to make it possible to operate and inspect the machine, this latter had to be developed vertically, placing the various composite reels in stepped relationship and providing the spinning machine with several, for instance three, operating levels. Therefore the machine has an enormous bulk and even the buildings must be especially designed with a much greater vertical clearance than is normal in industrial buildings.

Several proposals tending to reduce the dimensions of the machine have been made, but none of these has proved advantageous or has entered into practice because the drawbacks hereinbefore set forth are intimately tied to factors hitherto believed to be irreducible, that is, the above mentioned length of stored thread and the total duration of the treatment.

From the structural viewpoint it is obvious that it would be more simple and economical to perform all the processing steps on a single storing and advancing device. Theoretically such possibility has been contemplated, but the proposals made in that direction have proved impossible to carry into industrial practice. Actually it has been found that in that case the separation of the processing liquids becomes almost impossible and the required space exceeds every tolerable limit. It should be kept in mind that upon each device there progresses a single bundle of filaments originating from one spinning nozzle, which bundle constitutes that which shall be indicated hereinafter as one thread or yarn, so that in practice the spinning machine consists of a battery of units each of which carries one thread and which are mounted upon a common frame. In order to operate and inspect with a non-excessive number of workment such a machine, consisting of a sufiicient number of units, it is necessary that each yarn should remain accessible and this cannot be obtained if excessively long storing and advancing devices are used. Such devices would thus render the machine not only intolerably bulky and costly to install, but also difficult to operate, especially in the threading-up phase and in case of yarn breakage. All this would unfavorably affect production costs and quality of yarn. As a consequence, the manufacturers that have Wished to adopt a single storing and advancing device have been forced, in view of the combination of requirements aforesaid, to give up the major part of the processing steps. Since it is not possible to do without the setting (by set ting I mean here the completion of the coagulation or regeneration of the cellulose content of the viscose, which takes place after the filaments have left the coagulation bath), these manufacturers have left out desulphurizing and bleaching and the washings relating thereto, limiting themselves to producing a yarn of inferior quality due to the presence of sulphur therein and to its yellowish colour. In many cases they have even preferred to preform the drying on a separate device. In spite of all that, the bulk of machines of this type is at least equal to that of the spinning machine according to the present invention, which machine however does not contemplate the omission of any processing step.

As already stated, the theoreticalpossibility of performing all the treatments on a single storing and advancing device has been mentioned in some patents; however, no mention is made therein of the practical difiiculties that oppose carrying it into practice and even less are instructions given to overcome said difiiculties. In fact, no spinning machine intended to perform a complete processing of the yarn over a single storing and advancing device with a generally helical yarn path has ever been used in industry and even less has a machine of such type ever operated under the conditions required by the modern viscose rayon production, that is, at high speed, for instance at about 100 meters per minute, and performing all the treatments required to obtain a finished yarn.

The invention has now succeeded in creating a continuous spinning machine which unites the feature of the greatest simplicity, compactness and economy of construction with the capacity to produce desulphurized and bleached yarn working at high speed and employing a single storing and advancing device itself of a very simple structure. The spinning machine according to the invention is easy to operate, inspect and control with a minimum of personnel and is easy to start. Other advantages of the invention will appear as the description I proceeds.

The invention will be better understood with reference to the appended drawings which illustrate particular em bodiments thereof, wherein:

Fig, l isa somewhat schematic view of a unit of the spinning machine, that is of the various parts which serve for the treatment of one thread, said view being substantially transversal with respect to the spinning machine which consists of a convenient number of units like that illustrated, set side by side and supported by a single frame; I

Fig. 2 shows a thread-storing thread advancing device according to the invention together with the parts cooperating therewith; v

Fig. 3 shows at a greater scale a detail of said device wherein various parts have been omitted;

Fig. 4 is a somewhat schematic end view of the same device; and

Fig. 5 illustrates a detail of another thread-storing thread-advancing device according to the invention together with certain parts cooperating therewith;

The invention is characterized in the first place by the structure and operation of the storing and advancing device, which is, generally speaking, of the helical path type, and further possesses in combination certain essential features to be specified hereinafter.

It is subordinately characterized by the Way in which various parts cooperating with said device are formed and disposed in relation to their cooperation with said device. Finally it contemplates other characteristics that will appear in the course of the description.

One embodiment of the storing and advancing device is particularly illustrated in Figs. 2,, 3 and 4. As shown, said device comprises essentially a main or processing roller the diameter whereof is not substantially less than 25 cm. and which is slanted with respect to the horizontal by an angle not substantially less than 6, said inclination being in such a direction that the yarn will travel over the roller from the low to the high end thereof. In cooperation with said main .roller, there is provided a secondary roller 11 that will be called advancing or feed" roller, which preferably has a smaller diameter, this being useful among other things to reduce the total size of the device, and which has its axis askew with respect to the axis of the main roller. The distance between the two rollers is preferably moderate in order to increase, insofar as possible, the contact angle between main roller and thread. The surfaces of both rollers are preferably free from openings, holes, or grooves which have proved to be not useful or even tendentially harmful to the realization of the invention though they are not incompatible therewith.

The main roller is that on which the processing treatments are effected and is longitudinally divided into a certain number of processing or treatment zones. The longitudinal direction with respect to the roller in the specific embodiment shown, is substantially transverse with respect to the spinning machine as a whole, inasmuch as it is preferable that the thread should advance from one side to the other of said machine. The number of the zones correspond to the numbers of the processing steps and, while it is not rigidly fixed, should be understodd as being suflicient to perform all the wet processing treatments necessary to obtain a perfectly finished yarn. It is further preferred that the thread should be dried and cooled and, if desired, conditioned on the same processing roller, by providing therein thermally isolated drying and cooling and conditioning zones. The separation between adjacent zones is effected by providing, in suitable positions, separation flanges 12 the minimum height whereof is determined by the particular manner in which they operate, which will be illustrated further on. In order that said flanges may be made sufficiently high and that the contact angle between processing roller and yarn may be kept high, and further in order to allow of an easy threading-up of the device, thread guide members 13 are provided between treatment and advancing rollers. Said members may have the simplest structure, for instance they may be pin-shaped thread guides such as not to harm the thread and at the same time to allow the threadingup of the device. The angle that the thread makes when contacting each guide 13, is preferably about the minimum required to allow the thread to pass over the flange wherewith the guide in question cooperates.

In correspondence with each zone of the processing roller, there is provided a device 16 for distributing the processing liquor or wash water that is to act on the thread in said zone, which may be, as illustrated in the drawings, a simple pipe with a suitably positioned orifice or may be a shower nozzle or another distributing device. The position at which the processing liquor impinges upon the roller must follow a precise criterion that will be explained later. A drain trough or pan for receiving the liquors that have wetted the various zones is positioned below the processing roller. Said trough, generally indicated at 14, is divided in as many cells as are the processing zones, obviously in order to keep the liquors separate and allow their recovery. The partitions 15 which separate the various cells have positions related to those of flanges 12 according to the following rule: each partition is located slightly before the respective flange, the word before referring to the progress of the thread and meaning therefore towards the lowermost part of the roller.

In the particular embodiment of the invention illustrated, the wet processing zones are seven and precisely correspond to the three operations'of setting, desulphurizing and bleaching, to the corresponding washings and to the finishing operation. The respective processing zones are designated by numerals 20-21--22-23-2425- 26 and the respective cells of trough 14 are designated in succession by numerals 30 to 36.

Still in the particular embodiment illustrated, the processing roller also comprises a final drying zone 27. Suitable but otherwise optional means are provided in this zone to impart to the yarn the heat required for drying and the said means may conveniently comprise a cavity that looks toward the end of the processing roller,

ase'aroe or system of cavities within the processing roller in the drying zone, to which a suitable heating liquid may be led. In any case there are provided means for thermally isolating the drying zone, and said means may conveniently consist, as indicated in the example, in an interrup tion of the treatment roller effected by means of a zigzag gap 18 so that the winding and progress of the yarn continue regularly even though the roller itself is interrupted as desired. Obviously, instead of saying that the processing roller is thus interrupted, one might say that there is provided a separate drying roller coaxial with the roller on which the wet processing occurs and located adjacent thereto and combined therewith in the manner indicated. The motion of the processing liquors, in which expression the wash waters areunderstood to be comprised, occurs in the following manner. In correspondence with each treatment zone there exists a distributing means such as a feed pipe 16 for the liquor pertaining to said zone, the orifice 17 whereof is located above the treatment roller and towards the higher portion of the corresponding zone. This is necessary in order to obtain the counter-current treatment, the advantages whereof are well known. In the case of this embodiment of the present invention the posititon of said distributing means follows an original criterion. Actually, the orifice 17 of each feed pipe or other distributing means is somewhat displaced with respect to the flange that determines the end of the related zone and precisely somewhat before, that is in a lower position than, said flange. The amount of said displacement is determined in relation to the delivery of the liquor in such a way that when the liquor hits the treatment roller and forms thereon a film that covers its surface, said film in spreading out after leaving orifice 17 should approach but not. contact the flange. It is desirable that it should approach it, because this leads to a complete utilization of the roller surface, but it is necessary that it Should not contact it.

By this arrangement, each flange 12 has one dry face 12 (see Fig. 3). The processing liquor forms, as has been stated, a film on the roller surface thus participating in the rotation thereof, and flows towards the beginning of the roller, that is to say downwards, in counter-current with respect to the thread. Since the inclination of the roller is relatively high and since on the other hand relatively abundant quantities of treatment liquors are employed in the operation of the device, the liquid film thus formed flows against the flange that limits the beginning of the corresponding processing zone and precisely against the face 12 (see Fig. 3) of said flange and thereafter falls into the corresponding cell of trough 24. Since each flange has one dry and one wet face and since the corresponding partition of the trough is located on the side of the dry face, each cell of the trough receives only one processing liquor and any mixture thereof is rigorously avoided. It is however necessary that the height of the flanges be snfiicient to stop and deflect the liquid films which, as has been stated, are relatively abundant The combination of the means described, permits to ootain on a single processing roller the positive and certain separation of the various processing liquors even while these latter are abundantly fed and while a liquid film on the roller and a strong countercurrent eifect are obtained. In the multiple treatment devices hitherto known, on the contrary, the separation of the liquid is imperfect and in any case one is obliged to employ quantities of liquors that are too small and such as not to produce a speedy and reliable treatment.

In order that the device may operate satisfactorily, it is necessary that the processing liquor should not be subjected to an excessively centrifugal action even while a high advancing speed of the thread is maintained. This is possible in the device according to the invention inasmuch as the treatment takes place over a roller with a 6 relatively large diameter; the diameter of the treatment roller should desirably he the greater, the larger the yarn speed.

In order that the particular advantages of the storing and advancing device according to the invention should be well understood, one must take into consideration the fundamental factor of the processing time. To increase this latter, generally in any device, it is necessary either to increase the size of the device or to decrease the advancing speed of the thread. In practice there are limits of a technical and economical nature that cannot be overstepped. The speed of the modern spinning machine should not be substantially less than .60 meters per minute and it is desirable that it should be close to or even more than meters per minute. The size of the device cannot be increased beyond the limits already attained by known equipment, otherwise the single device would cease to 'be practical and one would have to either employ a plurality of-devices or even give up continuous spinning. Those skilled in art know this factor well and know that practical-1y the aggregate duration of the treat ments on a single device, drying included, should not greatly exceed two and a half minutes and should desirably be even less. I

For these reasons it has been practically necessary to omit the desulphurizing and bleaching steps and the washings corresponding thereto in the single device continuous spinning machines prior to this invention, since on the basis of what was hitherto known, it was not thought possible that such processing steps could be performed within the narrow time limits aforesaid. This has been done in the single device continuous spinning machines that are also the only machines of this class with a twocylinder storing and advancing device hitherto industrially realized. However, the drawbacks implicit in the production of a non-desulphurized and unbleached yarn are considerable and have limited the diffusion of such spinning machines. Now it has been found that with the storing and advancing device and with the combination of elements that forms the main object of this application, it is possible to perform all the processing treatments Within time limits that are not only acceptable, but even lower as a whole than those achieved hitherto for the sole setting, washing and; drying steps. g

For instance, in a spinningmachine according to the invention, a denier yarn has been produced with an advancing speed equal to and even greater than 100 meters per minute and with the following processing times: setting 27 seconds, first wash 12 seconds, desulphurizing 20 seconds, second wash 12 seconds, bleaching 17 seconds, third wash 12 seconds, finishing 3 seconds, drying 15 seconds.

The whole processing thus lasted less than 2 minutes. It is understood that these figures are merely examples and that the duration of the processing treatments may be modified and further that other steps may be added and those above listed may be modified within the scope of the invention.

The result obtained is surprising because nothing in the present state of the art or in that hitherto published or patented, suggested that such a result could be achieved and even less that it could be achieved through the particular combination of means that form the essential object of the invention.

The result must be ascribed to the conditions wherein the wet processing treatments are carried out in the device described. In line of principle it is perfectly admissible that the time required for a treatment by means of a liquid bath should depend not only from the nature of the thread and the bath composition, factors that do not concern this invention and that are understood to be substantially unchanged with respect to what was previously known, but also from the way in which the thread and the liquors contact each other and from their respective travels. r

point a particularly wide interval on each roller.

There was however nothing to indicate thata device such as that described would bring about such a contact between yarn and bath as to lead to a reduction of the processing times that is not only drastic, but also such as it had not hitherto been thought possible to effect, thus making it possible for the first time in the evolution of the rayon spinning technique to perform all the wet treatments and, if desired, even the drying and the conditioning upon a single thread-storing thread-advancing device of a limited size and capable of spinning at a speed in the order of 100 meters per minute, effecting besides a perfect separation of the processing liquors and allowing of an easy threading-up and inspection of the spinning machine.

The advancing speed and processing times being equal, the dimensions of the storing and advancing device are related to the pitch of the helix described by the yarn, that is, to the distance between two successive yarn turns. This distance should be small enough to allow of 'a good utilization of the liquid baths and of a reduced size of the device. In the case of the present device, said distance depends upon the angle between the axes of the two rollers, which may be varied through suitable regulating means, and, once the angle is fixed, upon the ratio of the diameters of the rollers. It is possible to keep the distance between the turns within acceptable limits, inasmuch as there are provided means to cause the yarn to travel past the flanges that separate the several proc essing zones. If such means did not exist, it would be necessary to give up the positive separation of the liquors, and this would lead to intolerable drawbacks, or to provide sufficiently wide intervals between adjacent processing zones concurrently reducing both the amount of the treatment liquors employed and the slant of the processing roller with respect to the horizontal. In such case the processing treatments would require a time much greater than that which they require in the case of the device according to the invention and consequently their number would have to be reduced. One would reach the same consequences if the distance between the thread turns should be increased too much and therefore the surface of the processing roller should be utilized only to a small degree.

To give an idea of the compactness and efficiency of a device according to the invention, it suflices to say that the processing described in the above mentioned example could be performed over a treatment roller having a total useful length of 90 cm. and a diameter of 30 cm.

In another embodiment of the invention, illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4, the advancing roller 11 is also provided with separation flanges.

The flanges of the advancing roller, that will be called subsidiary flanges, indicated at 40 in Figs. 3 and 4, may

of course be lower than flanges 12 of the processing roller. In any case they are displaced with respect to these latter towards the end of the device, that is forwards in the direction in which the yarn travels, and are located thus approximately above guides 13, in order that the thread may easily travel past them. It is noted that the adjacent turns of the thread are further apart in correspondence to each guide, and that is, there is at that The two intrevals are however displaced with respect to one another, the flanges being located precisely in said intervals.

' i Fig. 5 illustrates a further embodiment of the invention.

This is characterized in that the adjacent wet processing zones are separated by pair of flanges, the flange of each pair that follows the other in the direction of the yarn travel being located towards the higher end of the treatment roller and being designated by numerals 42 and 43. The corresponding flange of each pair that precedes the other iii direction of the yarn travel is designated by numerals 42' and 43. The flanges have a height that is sufiicient to stop the processing liquors that flow on the roller in countercurrent to the thread, such height being therefore related to the slant of the roller and to the amount of processing liquors employed. A suitable thread guide such as 49 and S0 is located in correspondence to each pair of flanges. The drain trough 14 is divided in cells 35' and 31, corresponding to the wet processing zones and separated by partitions 45, 46. Each partition pro: jects within the gap between the two flanges of a pair. If several separate drip pans are employe'd instead of a single trough, as might be done in connection with any application of the invention, the walls of said pans will project into said gaps in lieu of the partitions.

It will beseen, that each flange has one dry and one wet face. The flanges 42 and 43 are wetted on the face that looks to the direction towards which the yarn travels, the right face in Fig. 5. The flanges are dry on the face that looks towards the direction from which the yarn comes. The opposite occurs with respect to the flanges indicated by numerals 42' and 43'.

At the beginning of the first wet processing zone there is'located a single flange 44 and another single flange is located at the end of the last zone. These prevent the liquors from spilling outside the ends of trough 14. It

- will be seen that the treatment liquors are perfectly separated, inasmuch as the liquor corresponding to zone 21 is held at the end of the zone, to the right, by flange 43 and at the beginning of the zone to the left, by flanges 42, both of said flanges projecting into cell 31, into which the liquor coming from zone 20 cannot enter because it is stopped by flange 42' and the liquor coming from zone 22 cannot enter because it is stopped by flange 43. The

flanges 42 and 43 serve also as stop projections duringthe threading-up of the device, inasmuch as the yarn initially wound on the device at the beginning of any zone proceeds until it bears against the corresponding flanges 42' and 43 and it stops there until it is caused to engage the corresponding guide thus going over the flanges and passing to the following zone.

The flanges 42' and 43' therefore have also the function of preventing the treatment liquor of each zone from contaminating the successive zones during the starting phase when the wet yarn has not yet disposed itself along its final or normal path.

The system of flange pairs described above may be associated with a system of single flanges or of flange pairs located on the advancing roller, to permit subsidiary treatment thereupon and/or to separate liquors carried by the yarn.

It is to be noted that some treatments, Wet or otherwise, could be effected on the advancing rolle'r or both on the advancing and on the treatment roller.

In the foregoing, the storing and advancing device and the element parts directly cooperating therewith have been described. A spinning machine according to the in vention comprises as a whole a widely arbitrary number of units each of which is composed as schematically indicated in Fig. 1, that is, comprises a spinning nozzle 2 and a coagulation bath 3 from which the thread passes, with the interposition of godets if desired, to the lowermost portion of the storing and advancing device. When the thread receives on said device all the necessary treatments including the non-liquid processing steps, it passes from the highermost part of the device to a winding device 5 of any convenient type.

The two rollers that make up the device advantageously have a cantilever mounting being supported by arm 6 connected in any convenient manner to a spinning machine frame not indicated in the drawings. A spacing device 7 is preferably mounted on the unsupported end of the rollers, the journals of the two rollers rotating freely therein and being maintained thereby at the desired mutual distance, preferably in a controllable manner. Any known mechanical device, which need not be described, may be adopted to vary the angle between the two rollers. The processing roller is driven by any trans mission, not indicated, and the advancing roller may be driven as well or may be carried into rotation by the yarn. The storing and advancing device is preferably disposed in a substantially transverse direction with respect to the spinning machine as a whole, so that each thread travels in a perpendicular, or not very far from perpendicular direction wtih respect to the larger dimension of the machine. The dimensions of the spinning machine units are such that the storing and advancing device is completely accessible to the worker assigned to watching it, even if it is accessible part from one side and part from the other, inasmuch as the machine as a Whole possesses, as it is readily understood, one dry and one wet side. It is also preferred to provide each storing and advancing device with a suitable cover, which may be opened to perform the required manipulations, but which normally keeps the device itself isolated from the surrounding space, each device preferably being provided with an individual cover. Conveniently, a certain number of spinning units is mounted on a single frame.

The wet processing treatments to be effected on the processing roller according to the invention, are all those necessary to the production of finished yarn, including those necessary to complete the coagulation and the setting of the filaments, While successive treatments different from or in addition to those contemplated hereinbefore, such as for instance an after-bleaching acid treatment known as antichlor treatment, may also be included.

It is also foreseen that one may, without departing from the scope of the invention, impart to the processing roller or portions thereof, a conical shape, provide steps therein or adopt other means for facilitating the contraction of the yarn, or bring about any desired degree of stretch of the yarn by the same means or by any known or suitable means.

In the foregoing, some embodiments of the invention have been described, but it is understood that the same is not limited to said embodiments, since persons skilled in the art may introduce therein many modifications, variations and adaptations without departing from the scope of the invention.

This invention may be conveniently employed to effect continuous wet processing treatments also on artificial protein filaments, such as for instance, washing, prehardening and/or hardening operations, by using saltcontaining baths, that may also contain formaldehyde and are known in themselves.

What I claim is:

1. In a continuous spinning machine for the spinning of textile fibres of the class indicated, in particular of viscose rayon filaments, in combination, a thread-storing thread-advancing device comprising a processing roller divided into processing zones comprising at least one zone for each of the following wet processing treatments at least: setting, first washing, desulphurizing, second Washroller, said flange means extending over the entire periphery of said processing roller, means for rotating at least the processing roller to progress the thread along the device, thread guide means located between said advancing roller and said processing roller. for deflecting the thread to travel past said flange means without contacting them, means for feeding processing liquor to each treatment zone, a plurality of collecting receptacles below the processing roller, a separate receptacle for each processing zone, said flange means overlapping the walls of said receptacle and being directed toward the interior of said receptacles to cause the drip from each treatment zone to be deposited in only one receptacle.

2. In a continuous spinning machine for the spinning of textile fibers of the class indicated, in particular of viscose rayon filaments, in combination, a thread-storing thread-advancing device comprising a processing roller divided into processing zones comprising at least one zone for each of the following Wet processing treatments at least: setting, first washing, desulphurizing, second washing, bleaching and third washing, and so slanted as to cause the processing liquors to flow on its surface in countercurrent to the thread, an advancing roller of substantially smaller diameter than said processing roller and in askew relationship, thereby to cause the thread to travel over both rollers in a generally helical path, pairs of peripheral flanges extending unbrokenly over the entire periphery of said processing roller, each pair separating two adjacent wet treatment zones of the processing roller for deflecting the processing liquors and causing the same to drip from said roller without contaminating each other, and thread guide means so positioned between said advancing and processing roller in correspondence to said pairs of flanges as to engage and deflect the thread to cause the same to travel past said pairs of flanges without contacting them; means for feeding a processing liquor to each wet treatment zone of said processing roller; means for separately receiving the liquors wihch drip from said processing roller, said receiving means comprising partitions each of which extends into the annular space defined by the flanges of one of the aforementioned pairs; and means for rotating at least the processing roller thereby to cause the thread to progress along the device.

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